This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the war on terrorism and how it managed to link a cluster of policy issues that were previously more loosely connected. The proper definition of ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the war on terrorism and how it managed to link a cluster of policy issues that were previously more loosely connected. The proper definition of and response to terrorism; the universality of human rights and the limits of sovereignty; the proper interpretation and application of humanitarian law; the legitimate use of force; the treatment of minorities (particularly illiberal minorities within western states); the authority and modes of interpreting international law — each subject has overlapped and penetrated each other. The chapter then discusses the concepts of liberalism, human rights, terrorism, and neo-conservatism.Less

Tom Farer

Published in print: 2008-02-07

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the war on terrorism and how it managed to link a cluster of policy issues that were previously more loosely connected. The proper definition of and response to terrorism; the universality of human rights and the limits of sovereignty; the proper interpretation and application of humanitarian law; the legitimate use of force; the treatment of minorities (particularly illiberal minorities within western states); the authority and modes of interpreting international law — each subject has overlapped and penetrated each other. The chapter then discusses the concepts of liberalism, human rights, terrorism, and neo-conservatism.

This chapter examines, in a millennium-deep cultural perspective, the way in which persisting patterns of political language in the Middle East and beyond have been shattered by nonviolence. In a ...
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This chapter examines, in a millennium-deep cultural perspective, the way in which persisting patterns of political language in the Middle East and beyond have been shattered by nonviolence. In a first part, it describes the dominance of the concept of terrorism and the way it was undermined by the Middle East nonviolent revolution. It examines then the ambiguity of the Middle East central political concepts of fitna, bid‘a, and jihad, including the historical divide between Sunnism and Shi‘ism. It rediscovers legal, poetical, historical, and philosophical nonviolent testimonies of Middle Eastern culture prefiguring ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi and the nonviolent advocates of the contemporary Middle East.Less

Shattered Political Language : Reconstructing a Humanist Culture of Nonviolence

Chibli Mallat

Published in print: 2015-02-05

This chapter examines, in a millennium-deep cultural perspective, the way in which persisting patterns of political language in the Middle East and beyond have been shattered by nonviolence. In a first part, it describes the dominance of the concept of terrorism and the way it was undermined by the Middle East nonviolent revolution. It examines then the ambiguity of the Middle East central political concepts of fitna, bid‘a, and jihad, including the historical divide between Sunnism and Shi‘ism. It rediscovers legal, poetical, historical, and philosophical nonviolent testimonies of Middle Eastern culture prefiguring ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi and the nonviolent advocates of the contemporary Middle East.